St. Louis Post-Dispatch Bill McClellan column
must have a code, that you can live by"
-- "Teach Your Children" by
Several years ago, when
"I got a couple questions, Ray," the detective said. "A couple things I never understood."
"I don't talk to cops," said Flynn.
"I'm not a cop anymore," the detective said. "Besides, everybody's dead. Nobody else cares about any of this."
"I don't talk to cops," said Flynn, who lived, and died, by a certain code. Think of it as a beacon guiding a person through a foggy life. Truth is, the foggier your life is, the more you need a code.
Besides criminals, who has the foggiest job?
My guess would be college basketball coaches and politicians. Lots of money floating around, lots of shady characters you have to at least pretend to like. You cannot be morally rigid. I often quote the late Sen.
The code for college basketball coaches and politicians is the same as it was for Flynn. You play the game, you don't come in on other players. You don't hear many basketball coaches calling their colleagues out for recruiting violations. What do the kids say? I'm rubber, you're glue.
Which is why I would suggest that whatever career former Gov.
How does one explain a rising star in Republican politics coming undone in the bright red state of
If we were to throw out all the lawmakers who have cheated on their spouses or their campaign finances, we might have a hard time getting a quorum.
These are not normally mortal wounds, especially for a governor whose party controls both houses of the Legislature. You apologize for the first and pay a fine for the second.
But Greitens campaigned aggressively as an outsider who was going to clean up the corruption in
Had he stopped acting so pure, his fellow
I don't, but I don't hold it against him that he pretends to.
I understand accommodations. I made my living writing for newspapers, and while that's not as foggy as mobster, basketball coach or politician, it was not always, in moral terms, the definition of clear and sunny.
Before becoming a columnist, I was the night police reporter for this newspaper. One night, Chief
Fortunately, before the situation could get out of hand, the manager came over and assured the chief that the lunch was on the house. Of course it was.
In a more ethical universe, a high-ranking police officer would not have dared to demand a free lunch in front of a reporter, and a reporter would not have permitted the chief to buy him lunch, even if the chief, were to actually, you know, buy it.
But go along, get along. That was my code. Too bad for Greitens that he did not have one.
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